


The hungry moon and empty sea

by Dreams_of_Silence



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Cannibalism to avoid cannibalism?, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know, Trauma, Weirdly innocent too, eldritch horror, god!hunter, hunger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21675010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreams_of_Silence/pseuds/Dreams_of_Silence
Summary: One human turned god meets another. A story about loneliness, affection and cannibalism.
Relationships: The Hunter (Bloodborne)/The Outsider (Dishonored)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	The hungry moon and empty sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Голодная луна и пустое море](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23348410) by [Riru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riru/pseuds/Riru), [StealthGames](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StealthGames/pseuds/StealthGames)



The Void, by nature, was silent.

On rare occasions the whales that drifted through would kindly sing but for too long all other noise came from those the Outsider brought in.

That had of course changed with the arrival of the Good Hunter. This strange creature...painfully innocent, viciously brutal, far more human than he but disturbingly bestial at times. And she, she _loved_ the Void.

Whilst the Outsider considered the Void tedious beyond measure the Hunter found solace in its quiet. Slowly she healed from the terrors of her home; the blood soaked city of Yharnam, that nightmarish reminder of what happened when others of their kind intervened, and the following Darkness the Hunter had dragged herself through to reach _anything_.

The Outsider in turn was mesmerized by this once human girl. He had encountered Others before her, the multi-eyed many limbed monstrosities that made the Hunter spit when calling them 'the Great Ones', but the Outsider had quickly learned that their reasoning and motivations were beyond even his abilities to comprehend.

Instead the Outsider learned to hide the worlds he watched from the Others' gaze: Preventing them from nudging humanity into destroying itself through knowledge and insanity.

It had taken a long time for the Hunter to talk to him. Years were spent with her skittering away as soon as she noticed the Outsider until she at last accepted his presence in the distance. He began to leave gifts, things of comfort or interest, and she started to response in her own way: The paper cranes she would fold from book pages were endearing...the vials of human blood and sedative were not so much.

Finally she left him a simple message, torn words from the page of a book: _Are you real. Are you human._

That was the turning point. Eventually they stood face to face and it wasn't the ink black of the Outsider's eyes or the shadows that clung to him that made her disappear but the loudness of his voice. He didn't mention that when she fled her movements, _her body_ , were far from human either.

It took time, it took decades, before the Hunter could manage short conversations spoken in low murmurers, still darting away if he moved too quickly.

By the end of the first century the Hunter admitted with a wince that when she first saw his Void she believed herself to have finally gone truly insane in the dark: Unable to cope with living in her memories but also unable to recall a truly pleasant place to dwell the Hunter had assumed that this world of fractured places was the kindest thing her mind could grant her.

Privately the Outsider wondered if the Hunter was older than he was. She had guessed her time spent in Yharnam by the meals she ate, the endless night of the Hunt removing all conventional methods of time measurement. However the Darkness she had struggled though to escape her home didn't even allow for that.

The Hunter had at least been wandering the dark long enough to be overwhelmed even by the Void. She had thanked him profusely when the Outsider had dulled the Void from a hazy sky blue to twilight.

With time the Hunter learned to take amusement from watching the Outsider's favoured world as he did, sometimes voicing thoughts of visiting though they both knew it would be unlikely she would ever cope with the bustle of a street again.

By the end of the second century they talked freely, walking side by side through the fragments as the Hunter scavenged rope and other materials for the cluster of islands she had tied together and named home. It felt pointless to the Outsider but the Hunter had been so _proud_ when she gleefully showed him the box of oil paints she had found. She give a pointed look when a canvas and brushes showed up soon after and told him he ruining the game. The Outsider was more subtle afterwards.

Almost always the Hunter behaved as a human would. Sometimes though the differences in their nature, how they were brought into being, were uncomfortably noticeable.

The Outsider sacrificed by humans to become a god. A city sacrificed for the Hunter by gods wishing to make her theirs.

She didn't, or perhaps refused to, share his knowledge of the futures....Knowledge that was horrifyingly lacking when it came to the Hunter. It would merely be another peculiarity to add to her fascinating nature if not for the hungry inhuman eyes...the sharp teeth ripping through his flesh that the Outsider foresaw instead. He learned not to look.

At times, however, that hungry darkness would surface in the Hunter. Not just the occasional inhuman movements, or the glimpse of too many eyes and teeth that the Outsider only caught as he turned away.

The Hunter told him once that she had attained her vengeance for the humans of Yharnam. That the Great Ones had died to her blade leaving the world void of life....That if they wanted her to go around eating the _umbilical cords_ of their children then they shouldn't have been surprised when she chose to consume their corpses over the human ones.

Sometimes, sometimes his beautiful, defiant, _enthralling_ Hunter would remind the Outsider too clearly that she had devoured the gods of her world. When she would hide herself away, never visible but always present in the way the Void shook with the Hunter's hunger pains, the reminder that she hadn't fed since entering the Void.

Sometimes...the Outsider would listen to the Hunter's quiet sobs that echoing though their home and wondered if she was trying to convince herself not to eat the only other person here.

But with time it passed and the next month she would be spying on the Outsider's conversations with his Marked, close enough to hear but never spotted. The Outsider wasn't sure if it was due to the strange bond they had developed, something beyond mere friendship, that stayed the Hunter's teeth or if it was the natural _nothingness_ of the Void that made him unappetizing. He never asked.

In the end the Hunter's presence over the last few centuries made the Void bearable, even truly pleasant at times, and if the price for that was to be eventually consumed by her...well, at least it had been interesting.

Until then they played at human together. The Outsider would stroke down her cheek when she came out of hiding, and murmur into her hair _'It's good to see you again my dear.'_ The Hunter would give a sad smile and steer the conversation towards lighter subjects. Rarely did she mention what the Others had turned her into.

As the Hunter got better, as she learned to laugh and have awkward stuttered conversations with the kinder of his Marked, she also got worse.

Her eyes turned an eerie silver reflecting everything the Outsider's eyes absorbed. The moon hung heavy in the Void, once a rare occurrence, now ever present...The Outsider learned to tighten his control over the Void's influence on the worlds when the moon turned red, when the Hunter hid away. He would often find her staring at it, arms wrapped tightly around her stomach, hands shaking. The Hunter would wince, shake her head, and vanish when the Outsider asked why.

The Void was quiet, though no longer painfully so. Even when the Hunter was away, adding to the jumbled mess she tried to claim was a house, the whales adored her as much as himself, great pods of them swimming through the void singing for them.

Another century passed and they grew closer still. This girl, with all of her unpredictability and nonsensical humanity, treated the Outsider as an equal, not a god, not a monster or demon but... _Human_. Never before had he been asked to move furniture. The Outsider indulged her strange ideas, for they provided a chance to breath under theawful silence and knowledge of the Void.

It was the Hunter who mentioned that one of his Marked had perished. The Outsider did not notice. His Hunter was something new and interesting, and he had given up any belief that his Marked would leave behind something positive. He started to pick them at her suggestion.

Still the Void was quiet, so when the first hateful inhuman screech rang through it the Outsider fell back into long forgotten human habits and covered his ears. The distant sound of the Hunter's blades rang through the air along with the screeching, echoing over and over again only to grow louder. An Other?

Without a thought the Outsider headed towards the sounds of battle, towards the full moon that always loomed over his Hunter. She was far from where they usually spent their time in the Void: Where remnants of worlds gave a charade of reality. Instead the battle he could hear coming to a conclusion was on the edge, the Void dispersing to the Darkness after. Here the ground beneath the Outsider's feet was but an idea, crumbling away into smoke after each step.

The Hunter was hunched over the corpse of her foe, her ragged hat lost to the Void and her twin blades discarded behind her. The creature, this Other, stared at the Outsider, _begged him_ , with its many eyes. Its torso heaved as it gasped out it's last breaths. Blood and viscera spilled out around the Hunter staining her dark leather coat and the hand tangled in the things guts. It's long spidery limbs twitching as the Hunter moved.

The wisest course of action would be to leave.

The Outsider knew what she was doing. He could hear the way her teeth tore through chunks of the Other's flesh. See the way her human form had distorted: White hair floating out around her in bloody smoke, coat forming tendrils that held her prey in place.

The Outsider knew he couldn't be harmed by his Marked...but he doubted the cultists that bound him here took into account the risk of being eaten by another god.

He should leave the Hunter to her feast.

She was bleeding, heavily. Her leg stuck out to one side broken. And it was all so _fascinating_. There was no choice really.

_' My dear Hunter.'_

The Outsider's voice was fond and gentle, still she froze at his words. Slowly she lifted her face from the Other's stomach, releasing her bloody prize as she stood and turned to face him. Blood soaked through the front of her clothing, it dripped from her chin and clung to her lips. It didn't hide the way her coat melded to her torso, letting her ribs shine through the leather.

She had grown so thin....and her eyes shone with an all consuming hunger.

Hesitantly the Hunter licked her lips and took a step forward, ignoring the way her broken leg dragged on the ground, just as the Outsider stepped back. Starvation left her gaze hazy.

If he ran she would chase.

_'Look at you. What an impressive mess you've made, of yourself, and the old god. Tell me, Good Hunter, was slaughtering that creature worth it? Your leg is broken and your mind torn out of the little neat box of humanity you made for it. Come back to me my dear.'_

The Outsider spoke calmly, if she listened she might be able to follow his voice out of her frenzy. In truth he wasn't sure he could outrun her, even in the Void. This was not the girl he had grown to care deeply for...this was a monster born from absorbing the power of god after god after god. The truth behind the being she dangled in front of him like an angler fish.

The Hunter took another step forward, her fingers splayed slightly towards her blades on the ground. The Outsider went to dissipate as the blades quivered, to reappear out of the Hunter's reach.

She moved faster.

The Hunter's weight slammed into his back, silver dust falling around him, blades forgotten. He had little time to brace his arms, protect himself from a mouthful of blood, as she pinned him against the corpse. The Outsider forced himself to remain still as the chill of the Other's blood soaked through his front, the Hunter's warmth pressed against his back.

One arm wrapped tightly around his chest as the other held his head still, the Hunter let out a soft sigh behind him, her forehead pressed against the back of his neck.

Slowly, carefully, the Outsider started to twist his shadows around her.

When he moved to escape they might hold her.

He felt her frantic breath on his ear, then the brush lips, before her nose tickled the back of his neck, breathing in his scent.

_' Are you planning to eat me as well dearest?'_

He asked softly, keeping his gaze on the mess before him.

The Hunter's nose trailed down his throat but when the Outsider felt her mouth brush his jugular he broke away, turning into shards of the Void, and slipped out beneath The Hunter as he tightened his cage around her. She struggled once against the darkness, turning to face him, before going limp.

_' You...Ⱳᶏ_ _ᾗ_ _ţ ϔꜿᶙ.,!'_

The Hunter's broken cry rippled through the Void, twisting the air around them.

_' For once my Hunter, I have little desire to let you do as you wish. Calm yourself, place yourself back in that box. You never wanted to be this. '_

She let out a heartbroken sob, shaking her head, silver dripping from her eyes.

;

_͕͗͗ ̧͛_

_' Ꞥ͔ͦ̐ᶒ̧͓̻̖͌͘͠ḝ͓ȡ̝̃.,.'_

_͂̽ ͈ '_

_._

The Hunter rarely imposed her will on the Void, content to treat her scavenger hunts as a game with rules, but now the moon hung crimson behind her and the Outsider could see the ghost of gravestones and statues around them. The air was thick with blood and the fragrance of asphodels as her nightmares of Yharnam bled into the Void. If he wasn't careful it would be more than just the Outsider she tore apart.

_' Good Hunter...my dear Hunter, there is fresh meat behind you. You don't need me, go back to your feast.'_

The shadows binding her had started to brittle and crack. The Outsider prepared himself to disappear as they disintegrated but the Hunter merely crumpled to the ground, curled in on herself, scratching at her face, her eyes. He hesitated briefly before the Outsider reappeared crouched before the Hunter, gently pulling her hands away.

_' Oh sweet girl, please don't.'_

She stared at where the Outsider rubbed his thumbs over her wrists as he spoke, then shook her head and swallowed. When she looked up he startled back, reappearing a safe distance away. The remains of the Hunter's human face clung to her like ruined make up; teeth too sharp, mouth too wide, skin luminous under the red light of the moon and stained with blood and silver, silver that pooled out from her eyes and ran along deep cracks in her skin.

The Hunter instinctively went to reach for him before pulling her hands back, grasping them tightly into fists. She scrunched her eyes shut and tucked her head down, but not before the Outsider saw the look of distraught realization.

 _**̨** _ **͔** _**.** _ _**͔** _

_' Ͼản'ť Sёҿ Me Ꞙϙȑ Ћꬳ ₼ọ̹͔̣͛͊͑ѻῄ̐̌̊͘. '_

If she was still human her words would have came out a croaked whisper instead the Void shivered with them, echoing around him.

The Outsider paused. There was a point in which she sounded almost human before her voice distorted painfully again. Was she right? Was the thing she called 'the Moon', that part of her she'd always refused to acknowledge, blinding him? It had taken too long for the Outsider to move past the visions of his death at her hands, to attempt to reach out to her, to learned his foresight was faulty.

_' Help me see then my Hunter, tell me what the Moon' hides. Why do you need me?'_

She didn't respond straight away, shivering and wiping at the blood around her mouth, and when she did look up the Hunter's gaze still didn't quite focus on him.

_' ꝌņῘƴ Ỡṋё,..Ɖѻň'ţ Ɠȱ.'_

The lack of humanity was effecting the Hunter's mind, the animalistic thoughts of the Others, but the desire to not be left alone...The Outsider could empathise.

However the Hunter had gone for her weapons, which could have been simple habbit to pull them to her, the Outsider hadn't once seen the Hunter without her asymmetric blades. How rare it was for him to long to read her as he could others.

No, the Outsider didn't believe she was in any state to try to lie to him. For now at least the Hunter wanted his company, that could change quickly however.

_'Be still as a mouse and I'll stay by your side until you settle.'_

The Hunter tilted her head in confusion but gave a single sharp nod. Slowly he walked towards her, she had always been skittish when the Outsider vanished and reappeared, but now more than ever neither of them could make any sudden movements. When he crouched before her slowly the Hunter reached her hand out to him.

Tentatively the Outsider let palm of his hand rest against hers, the Hunter's fingers twitching before she carefully curled her fingers between his. She took a shuddering breath as her fingernails dug into the back of his hand, hanging onto him like a lifeline as she fought to stay motionless and control her frantic breathing.

The Outsider had always relied on trickery to keep the Others away. The Hunter however had once fought as she breathed, instinctively and unrelentingly. He knew he couldn't win in a fight but when the Outsider avoided the hunger in her eyes his instincts told him this wouldn't end in a bloodbath.

The Hunter looked at him in pain, like her one anchor in this world was about to walk away from her.

If he did leave would she recover? Would she slip out of the Void and back into the Darkness if he shunned her now?

...And after the Outsider had grown so use to her presence could he himself cope when the silence of the Void returned?

He huffed out a quiet laugh.

In the end she was worth the risk.

Still holding onto the Hunter's hand the Outsider crept forward, his knees bumping against hers, and tried to ignore the way her hair and coat twisted around him, not enough to hold him and likely just a subconscious gesture. Gently he placed the palm of his free hand on her cheek and she turned her head just enough to press her nose against his wrist, breathing deeply.

This was where he sealed his fate, either he would loose his hand or she would maintain her self control. But the Hunter kept still, one hand holding onto the ground, the other digging into his own with every ragged breath she took, leaving crescent shaped marks on his skin. Slowly the Hunter stopped shaking and as the minutes passed the air around them began to calm, the fractures in the Hunter's mask healing.

Idly the Outsider realised this was the longest she'd ever touched him, his Hunter had always been prone to fidgeting at anything but the most casual of gestures. Finally she let out a sigh, pressed her cheek against his hand once and pulled away, carefully rubbing at the marks she'd left on his hand as she avoided the Outsider's gaze.

_' ϓou should ǥסּ, oŧherwise I'ꝇl end up doing something we'll proƀably ᶉegṙҽt.'_

Her attempt at a smile was bitter and turned into a full grimace as ran his fingers down her jaw and gently tilted her chin up. Eyes full of hunger met his, but also a longing he had seen time and time again in the eyes of mortals.

How ever old she truly was, the Hunter's knowledge of human life was limited to the Hunt of Yharnam, her memories of before stolen, and much of her immortality spent in the dark. The Outsider had spent thousands of years watching humans. He could almost see her exact thoughts: What he considered inevitable she feared would cause ruin should it come to pass.

Slowly, always so slowly, he ran his thumb down her lip, taking pleasure in the way she shuddered and leaned into his touch.

_' What do you fear?'_

It took a moment for the Hunter to reply in the same whispery tones.

_' Of ⱨꭒrting you, of repulsing yơu.....Of being ąɭone in the đạrk again. You're the only one here, I-I don't wánt to ꝇͻsɇ ŧḥᶏt.'_

_' Do you truly believe it would be that easily done? That even if you took a bite out of me I would not forgive you?'_

The Outsider's hands rested on her shoulders as he leaned forward to press a kiss against her forehead. Her skin hot and feverish, the bite of static electricity on his lips. The Hunter let out a stuttered breath as his mouth brushed down the side of her temple to her cheek.

Here he could taste the blood of the Other as it dried on her skin, chokingly thick and bitter, burning in his mouth like nettles.

_' I know what it's like to be alone.'_

His breath fluttered on her lips, but the Outsider kept still. As always he must act slowly with his Hunter. Allow this choice to be hers.

She watched him now; with eyes more mortal than they had been in years, her meal or perhaps his closeness, letting her iris and pupils shimmer through the silver haze. This close he could still smell the bitterness of the Others blood but also the Hunter's scent of gunpowder and asphodels, a quietly maddening thing demanding a taste.

The Outsider let out a sigh as the Hunter leaned forward to kiss him, soft and warm against his own dry lips. Gently he pulled her closer in encouragement, letting her take her time as the warmth of her body bled into his, as her gentle brushes became more demanding against his mouth.

Finally he returned the Hunter's kisses. The Outsider's hand tightening in her hair, pulling her closer still, as her body quivered against him. She tasted like blood and ash, shadows, moonlight and madness. A flavour that sat heavy on his parched throat and how easily he could see the way Yharnam fell to the Moon's hunger. Curiously the Outsider explored her mouth: That which made her mortal, that which made her not.

Once long ago the Outsider had let one of his Marked kiss him, they had been driven to suicide afterwards. He wondered if they had tasted the same thing he did now, that taste of madness, of darkness...of Other.

A taste one could become so easily addicted to.

The Hunter pulled herself closer still, melting against him, almost sitting on his thighs with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she kissed him. With a gentle sigh she broke away from the kiss to rest her forehead on his shoulder. The Outsider held her in place, one arm around her waist, the other gently rubbing between her shoulder blades.

They sat in silence together until she gently placed a kiss on the side of his neck and looked up. She opened her mouth and paused, clearly unsure what to say.

_' How do you feel.'_

The Outsider murmured into her hair.

_' Hungry still. But better, better than I have in a long time...I should set my leg.'_

She didn't go to move however, content to stay in his arms.

_' And after our kiss?'_

_' I like this...I'd like to have this.'_

She snapped her mouth shut and tucked her head against his neck again. This was a first for the Hunter and the Outsider watched her resist the urge to backtrack into safer waters.

_' Do you....?'_

_' I predicted this would happen for a while now, though perhaps under different circumstances. I'm...content. This can be a new experience for the both of us. '_

She huffed at that.

_' I'm glad to entertain. Have you...before?'_

_' Perhaps when I was once human. Any attempts at intimacy since have only ended in disastrous results.'_

The Hunter looked up into the blackness of the Outsider's eyes, her own eyes reflecting them, and brushed her lips gently against his.

_' I shall not end the same way. You have as much chance of harming me as the Overseers and Oedon sitting down to discuss cake recipes.'_

She narrowed her eyes at him.

_' Though speaking of ridiculous and fatal situations. You should have known better than to follow me when I'm hunting.'_

She slipped her hand over his mouth when the Outsider went to justify his concerns for her.

_' You were being nosy and worrisome.'_

Gently the Hunter removed her hand and slid backwards off his lap. The Outsider let her go with a hint of sadness, that she'd managed to stay in close contact with him for so long was an achievement by itself.

_' My Marked would agree that I am nosy, if not prone to worrying.'_

_' And yet for me you did.'_

The Outsider gave a small noise of agreement as he watched the Hunter straighten out her leg, the bone healing as she did so. She would not yet appreciate it if he voiced his concern or affection for her.

It would take time, it always took time, to turn what they now shared into something solid, something real.

But time was something they both had indefinitely.

Fluidly he stood and offered a hand out to her, she pulled herself up with a little smile.

 _' I shall leave you be for now then. F_ _inish your meal my dearest._ _'_

The void of his eyes twinkled with amusement.

_' And then later we shall go back to playing at human if you so desire. We can drink tea and listen to my marked tell stories as they burn with the need to ask why you're coated in crimson.'_

She gave a quiet chuckle at that.

_' I'm not the only one.'_

This would no doubt play out again. One corpse would not feed his Hunter forever after all. He would have to watch her grow hungry again. Have to worry for his own safety near her.

But until then the Outsider had someone to drive away the silence, to find captivating and bewildering and at times more than a little terrifying.

Someone who someday he might be able to tell her he loved.

Yes she might eat him, but not today.

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be purely smut....I got bored and added backstory, it lost its smuttiness, now I have no idea what it is. 
> 
> Also this is what I give you after having both[ 'Born in the Month of Darkness' ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prsrT89_zzk)and[ 'Hungry For Another One' ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrCWc5G7H9g)stuck in my head...some weird Lovecraftian 'love?' story based on two games I haven't actually played but love the lore of. I wish I had a better laptop.
> 
> Not sure I stuck to the same style of writing all the way through, ah well. Also I'm badly dyslexic, please tell me about my mistakes. 
> 
> I might make this a short series. 
> 
> For those who can't read the Hunter's warped speech here's a translation: 
> 
> ' You...Ⱳᶏᾗţ ϔꜿᶙ.,!' --- You...Want You..!  
> ;  
> ͕͗͗ ̧͛  
> ' Ꞥ͔ͦ̐ᶒ̧͓̻̖͌͘͠ḝ͓ȡ̝̃.,.' --- Need...  
> ͂̽ ͈ '  
> ̨ ͔ . ͔  
> ' Ͼản'ť Sёҿ Me Ꞙϙȑ Ћꬳ ₼ọ̹͔̣͛͊͑ѻῄ̐̌̊͘. ' --- Can't See Me For The Moon.
> 
> ' ꝌņῘƴ Ỡṋё,..Ɖѻň'ţ Ɠȱ.' --- Only One..Don't Go.
> 
> ' ϓou should ǥסּ, oŧherwise I'ꝇl end up doing something we'll proƀably ᶉegṙҽt.' --- You should go, otherwise I'll end up doing something we'll probably regret.
> 
> ' Of ⱨꭒrting you, of repulsing yơu.....Of being ąɭone in the đạrk again. You're the only one here, I-I don't wánt to ꝇͻsɇ ŧḥᶏt.'  
> \--- Of hurting you, of repulsing you....Of being alone in the dark again. You're the only one here, I don't want to lose that.


End file.
